


Eleanor & the Three Pirates

by agdhani



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Gen, Thursday Tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-02-10
Packaged: 2018-03-11 13:41:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3328517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agdhani/pseuds/agdhani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eleanor has a choice to make.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eleanor & the Three Pirates

**Author's Note:**

> a spin loosely based on Goldilocks and the three bears...for the Fractured Fairytales prompt.

As the skiff lurched across the choppy water, the blonde watched the ship loom large before her. She saw them every day from her windows overlooking the bay, and she had come to Nassau on one of them many years ago, but there were times when she forgot how truly massive these vessels could be, how intimidating to those who did not live their lives on them…and sometimes even to those who did. There was a decision to make and it had to be made carefully, else her dreams were at risk, and there were certain risks that Eleanor Guthrie refused to take.

At the side of the ship, Mr. Scott stopped rowing. “You shouldn’t be doing this…you weren’t invited…”

“I go where I like…if he doesn’t like it, he can leave Nassau.” He wouldn’t though. This was a safe risk for her to make. The Captain would not challenge her on this. He needed her as much as she needed him.

Hiking up her skirts, she climbed the rope ladder that hung over the ship’s round belly until she stood, edges of her dress wet but ignored, on the gently swaying deck. She knew how a ship should be, and in many ways, this was no different than any other vessel, commercial or private. But this was a pirate ship, she could feel it in the atmosphere, in the feel of the wooden surfaces where she put her hand to steady herself as she crossed the deck towards the steps that would take her to the captain’s quarters. The men around her watched her but did not interfere, assuming she had some business with their captain and leaving the matter at that.

As she had said, Eleanor went where she pleased, did what she pleased. Whether anyone was home or not.

She pushed the door open after a curt knock and a single request of “Captain?” There was no reply, no one within; so she was early. She would wait…re-examine her options and her decision…and learn something of the man from the room’s décor as she did so.

Rackam wasn’t really an option worth considering. The recently turned Captain had a way about him, she would admit, a quick-witted fellow with survivability. But he was untried as a pirate captain, a man with no stable crew yet and no ship upon which to put them once he gathered enough men behind him. He was the softest of the choices, and so one she passed by without serious consideration.

That left her two choices, the only options, in her opinion, truly worth bearing in mind, and the two she had to give closest consideration to. On the one hand there was that infuriating, impossible man, stubborn and domineering, with a brutal, out-of-control crew he seemed barely able, or willing, to supervise at times and a ship lacking in size and munitions for the job at hand. The Spanish ship La Riqueza de Dios, sailing from Rome with diplomatic clergy and Church treasures was a prize worth taking, the sort that was going to require a faster, stronger ship than the one he had at his disposal. And in spite of everything, she did not fully trust him to return her share to her…not without strings attached that she did not want to entertain.

Not, she thought with a smirk as her fingers dragged across the heavy wooden desk laden with charts and instruments and personal trinkets whose value she did not know, that anyone could ever truly trust a pirate.

The other…he maintained his crew with manipulation and strength and promises that kept them in line, as much as such men could be kept and he had, with his years of learning and love of knowledge, a mind equal to her own. A man of vision, a man not afraid to take risks in support of a much bigger picture than the majority of those on Nassau ever dreamed possible.

And she trusted him more than most.

Hearing footsteps outside the door, she sat on the edge of the bunk, spread her skirts to the side alluringly, and waited for the door to open.  
“Who’s invaded my ship…my privacy?” came the voice as the door opened. He looked at the blonde woman seated upon his bunk and added with a smirk. “Who’s been in my bed?”

“You’ve got the crew…the foresight…the wisdom to do a job for me.” She said with her own twisted lips. “You and your ship are just right…just what I need…if you’re interested in a prize, Captain Flint.”

He closed the door behind him, cutting off her potential escape, and closed the distance between them. His voice an intrigued purr, he said, “I might be…depends on what you’ve got for me.”

Eyes sparkling, Eleanor replied, “A prize above any other…and only for you…if I’m satisfied with what you have to offer.”


End file.
